Colorado Division of Insurance

Health insurance companies have submitted what coverage they want to offer in 2017. Only one carrier, Anthem, wants to sell individual plans in the Roaring Fork Valley through the state’s online marketplace.

Buying and using health insurance can be time-consuming and complicated. A statewide nonprofit recently reviewed data on complaints, and found a top issue has to do with which doctors a patient can see.

There will be two large events in Basalt and El Jebel this week aimed at tackling big questions about health insurance. Basalt resident Robin Waters originally had hoped to arrange one event. She’s received so many questions and support, she and a variety of officials are now coordinating a forum and what she’s calling an enrollment fair.

A state senator is hoping to help people in the Roaring Fork Valley who have to get a new insurance plan for next year. About seven thousand residents in the Pitkin, Eagle, Garfield and Summit counties will have to shop for new health coverage, after the state dropped the ax on the health insurance carrier Colorado HealthOp.

Pitkin, Eagle, and Garfield counties are lagging behind when it comes to helping more people get health insurance. A recent review shows residents in the Roaring Fork Valley are more likely to not have coverage, compared to the statewide average. Aspen Public Radio’s Elise Thatcher sat down with Michele Lueck, President and CEO of the Colorado Health Institute in Denver. Lueck’s organization analyzed the data.

If you have health insurance, you can now look up how much it might cost you next year. Colorado's insurance office has posted all rate changes for the coming year, to make sure residents know whether their premiums are going up--and why. But actually finding that information can take hours, and may not turn up results at all.

Starting next year, residents in Pitkin, Eagle, and Garfield county could pay less for health insurance. State Insurance officials decided Friday to change how insurance companies come up with monthly premium prices. But the state’s top insurance official says that won’t get to the root of the problem.

The deadline for most Coloradans to get health insurance in 2014 is less than two weeks away and, efforts to get people covered is ramping up. Connect for Health Colorado will hold events in Glenwood Springs, Carbondale and Rifle over the next two weeks.

Officials with the state-run health insurance exchange says 100,000 people have already purchased plans on their website and they expect a surge of interest as the deadline gets closer.